Windows 10 and... Dirac Live for Emotiva

[KeithL]

I just installed Dirac Live Full for Emotiva onto a computer running Windows 10 and ran it.

The installation went very much like it does in Windows 8/8.1.
There were no unusual errors or questions.
When the program first ran, Windows Firewall asked if it was OK to allow it to access various networks.
I checked the boxes for Private Networks and Public Networks and said to ALLOW it to do so.

You DO need to enter your User Name and Password somewhat quickly or the software times out and the entry screen for them goes away.
If that happens, you'll have to run it again and try again.

I plugged my microphone in after starting Dirac and, while the driver installed immediately, Dirac wouldn't recognize the microphone until I restarted it.
It recognized the microphone just fine after that.

I took a set of measurements, calculated filters, transferred the filters, saved the project, closed Dirac, ran Dirac again, opened the previous project, changed the Target Curve, and downloaded the new filters.
NO problems; NO hangs; NO crashes.

Dirac Live created an icon in the Start Menu, but did NOT create a tile or an icon on the desktop.
You can right-click on the icon in the Start menu and select "Pin To Start menu" to create an icon on the right side of the Start Menu.
(I created a desktop icon manually - you can Google for all sorts of alternatives in Windows 10.)

The machine I used is a dual-core machine, with 4 gB of RAM, and a 64 gB SSD, and is running Windows 10 Pro x64 (upgraded from Windows 7).

[ÈlTwo]

Thanks Kieth. Good to know, since I just upgraded my laptop to Win 10.

[KeithL]

I just noticed a post where someone noted that the copy of Dirac Live on their Windows 8.1 computer wouldn't work after they upgraded to Windows 10.
(It worked fine after they re-installed it, but asked for the license information again, then informed them that they'd used up their install count.)
This isn't terribly surprising, and here's why...

Dirac Live is licensed "per machine"... and it keeps track of how many machines it's installed on by "remembering" some information about each machine.

It makes sense that switching to a new operating system is considered by the Dirac software to be "a big enough change to probably be a new machine".
At which point it would seem reasonable that it would act as if you had copied it to or installed it on another machine.
(Which would mean asking you to enter your license information again, and then refusing to accept it if you'd already used up your two allowed installs.)

If anybody runs into this problem, and doesn't have an install left, just call us and we'll reset the counter for you.

[dkojevnikov]

I have issues with Emotiva microphone on my Surface Pro with Windows 10. I started Dirac Live full yesterday and noticed that microphone registers random clicking/cracking sounds. Dirac was failing with "too much clipping" errors most of the time. I did adjust different mic parameters, switched off the AGC etc.

I closed Dirac, opened a Voice recorder and recorded silence. Playing it back revealed those pretty loud cracking sounds as if there is an electric discharge. My guess is that microphone isn't playing nice on USB 3.0 port with Windows 10 and it current USB drivers. So it is basically unusable at this moment on my tablet. Luckily I have a calibrated Daytona emm-6 microphone so I used it together with its 90-degree narrow band profile and it worked flawlessly.

Dirac worked fine on the same tablet and Windows 8.1. I did not try to hook it up through USB 2.0 hub yet to see if it makes any difference but I will try later.

[KeithL]

Late Breaking News about Dirac crashes on Windows 10

We have discovered why Dirac sometimes crashes when you try to run it in Windows 10.
This specifically addresses cases where Dirac Live consistently crashes with the Windows error message. "Dirac Live has stopped running.... Windows will now close this application..." under Windows 10.
One of our customers discovered that this can be caused by a conflict with the jRiver Media Center ASIO driver (and was kind enough to let me know).
This has solved the problem on at least one other computer, and MAY also be related to certain microphone issues with Windows 10...
NOTE: When the ASIO driver is enabled, it is loaded by jRiver - EVEN IF YOU AREN'T USING ANY ASIO DEVICES AND DON'T HAVE AN ASIO DEVICE SELECTED AS YOUR OUTPUT DEVICE.

To prevent jRiver Media Center from loading the conflicting ASIO driver, do the following...

In JRIVER:

Click “Tools”
Click “Options”
Go to the “General” page
Down near the bottom of the General page, locate the “Features” section
Click on the little triangle to the left of the word Features to pop open the section
In the Features section, UNCHECK the box next to “ASIO Driver”
Close and restart jRiver
(a reboot of the computer may also be required)

[jcmedia]

I have Jriver installed and I had this issue.

I simply ran Dirac in Admin mode and it worked perfectly.

Just another option

[michaelhifi]

I decided to rerun calibration due to adding another big Usher amp and going bridged mono. Fired up the computer and watched Windows 8.1 update. I thought I'd turned that off. Then Java wanted an update and thought, well, better do that too.

Now it works as Windows should. I get to the VERY end of the DIRAC Live calibration and Windows goes into "we ran into a problem" mode and shuts down. It is consistent in this action dumping my ass at the very end of the calibration mode.

Chalk up another evening to computer audio problems...

Now I'm faced with upgrading to Win 10. An early Win 10 build didn't like Dirac and wouldn't load cal files as I recall. I'm running the latest on my main rig and it works perfectly.

I'm on the fence here. Fix broken Win 8.1 and issue with Emotiva or Dirac or... upgrade and cross fingers?

[michaelhifi]

Win 10 worked perfectly. A small miracle

[tngiloy]

To turn off AGC in Windows 10....

Go to Settings
Go to Sound (you can type Sound in the search bar, then click on it when it gets found)
Pick the Recording tab
Highlight the C-Media Microphone
Click Properties
Under Microphone Properties pick the Custom Tab
Uncheck the box marked AGC

Then do a bunch of OK's to get out

Isn't Windows fun???

[greenpsycho]

Quick note: I had to disable cortana on win 10 to get the mic working. I'm assuming she would take exclusive control, and then the mic wasn't detected when firing up dirac